MANILA, Philippines — The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) yesterday apologized to Manila Mayor Isko Moreno for erroneously reissuing a show cause order (SCO) against him over his predecessor’s failure to pass an anti-drug abuse performance audit.
DILG Secretary Eduardo Año ordered the immediate withdrawal of the SCO after the issue was reported by media.
The order was mistakenly sent by the office of Undersecretary Ricojudge Echiverri to Moreno, according to DILG spokesman Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya.
“We would like to extend our apologies to Mayor Isko Moreno for the erroneous SCO issued by Undersecretary Echiverri’s office,” Malaya said during yesterday’s Laging Handa press briefing.
The SCO was for the city government’s failure to pass the 2018 Anti-Drug Abuse Council Audit during the term of then mayor Joseph Estrada. Moreno was elected in 2019.
In a memorandum dated yesterday, Echiverri admitted the July 9 order was an “inadvertent reissuance.”
Three documents
While Echiverri claimed the SCO was an honest mistake, he had signed two documents: the order on July 9 and another memorandum on the issue on July 19.
DILG regional director Ma. Lourdes Agustin signed another memorandum on the issue on July 23, referencing Echiverri’s memorandum.
The latest memorandum directed Rolynnie Javier, city director of the DILG Manila field office, to disseminate the SCO and ensure the submission of the explanation to Echiverri’s office in 10 days from receipt.
Malaya maintained there was no “political motivation” in the issuance of the SCO and that the DILG remains fair, unbiased and transparent in its dealings with local government units.
He noted that Echiverri’s office has yet to decide if it will take further steps in the audit against Estrada and Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna, who was also the vice mayor in 2018.
A question of timing
Moreno, in an interview with Dobol B TV, said he is assessing if the DILG order is related to other incidents that occurred within hours of each other.
Hackers attacked the city’s COVID vaccination website the night before people swarmed vaccination hubs in Manila on Thursday morning, he noted.
“I really don’t know if it is just a coincidence. But the night before that situation (people trooping to vaccination sites), the website was attacked, the vaccination website,” Moreno said.
“Then there was a surge of people. The next morning, the issue with DILG. Maybe it is a coincidence,” he added.
Moreno said in a dzRH interview that hackers attacked the city’s COVID vaccination program website 133 times on Wednesday night, “but they did not succeed. They also did that to me two months ago when the numbers of vaccinated in Manila increased in huge numbers.”
Requests for registration were sent from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. to “clog the registration and put it down,” he said, noting that the hackers used “one IP address, but there were thousands of requests. They used one barangay, one Wi-Fi.”
As for the DILG order, Moreno said he believes there is still democracy in the country.
“They can do what they want to do. I’m busy attending to the COVID-19 (crisis). They can file naman charges if they want to. Who will hinder them?” he said in an interview with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.
Moreno said the most important task at this time is to put food on every Manileño’s table while Metro Manila is under enhanced community quarantine or ECQ.
He said the city government will continue its vaccination program so long as there are vaccines available.
“COVID-19... continues to kill people. The best thing we can do is to vaccinate people as soon as possible, as many as possible,” Moreno said.